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The Water Resilience Changemaker

WSP’s Debby Reece is inspired by working on projects that improve community water resilience and leave a tangible legacy.

 
map marker United States | Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Reading Time : 3:45 minutes

As she was always curious about how things worked, Debby’s high school physics teacher encouraged her to pursue an engineering career. A civil engineer and local business line leader for water in California, Debby leverages her background in land development to assist clients in navigating the design and construction of stormwater, water and sewer conveyance systems and Low Impact Development design.

Discover more about Debby’s work to preserve and improve water infrastructure to leave a sustainable impact in the communities where we live, work and play.

What inspires or motivates you in your career?

I'm a people person and I really enjoy working with others to solve problems. On any given day, it might be a technical, resource or client strategy challenge that I'm solving. I love mentoring my team and take my role seriously to support their professional development. I never imagined when I started out as an engineer that I would work at a company that was involved in so many impactful projects. That's another thing that keeps me inspired.

From a bigger picture perspective, I'm inspired that my work is focused on improving communities. We make this world a better place and that impacts people's lives. The projects that we build make a difference, and we will be able to say that we left a tangible legacy.

 

What are some impactful projects that you’ve been a part of?

The top challenges in stormwater and wastewater are aging infrastructure, climate change, resilience and funding. Many cities have infrastructure that needs to be replaced or rehabilitated. Several of the projects I am working on are addressing these challenges.

The City of San Diego has 1,000 miles of storm drain pipe, 69 miles of channels and 46,000 drainage structures to maintain. We support the city with their storm drain repair and civil engineering needs. Those projects will make an impact in updating the city’s infrastructure for a more resilient future.

prt-wsp-reece-debby
Debby Reece
SVP, Water Local Business Line Leader
United States
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From a bigger picture perspective, I'm inspired that my work is focused on improving communities.

A project in construction that I'm working on is Alondra Park. It captures 44-acre feet of stormwater by diverting flows from existing storm drains, diverting them to a large underground storage vault, cleaning the water and then pumping the clean water to the sewer or back to the storm drain.

Another interesting project is the Border to Bayshore Bikeway project in San Diego. It's about 6.5 miles of traffic and roadway improvements to provide bike and pedestrian pathways that connect the San Ysidro Port of Entry to the southern end of San Diego Bay. It will provide a critical link for commuters who cross the border and bike to work in the U.S. The project includes stormwater improvements and safety barriers that provide physical separation between the traffic and the bicyclists.

 

Why do you enjoy working at WSP?

I think the best thing about working at WSP is the people and the expertise. Coming from a small firm, I appreciate the broad spectrum of experts we have at WSP. When a client asks if we can support them with a challenge, it's awesome to be able to say yes, we can do that.

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Stormwater improvements for the Border to Bayshore Bikeway include bioretention basins to slow and treat stormwater runoff. Photo credit: Kleinfelder

 

What emerging trends or technologies in stormwater and environmental engineering do you find most promising?

From a professional standpoint, I think there are aspects of Artificial Intelligence that are extremely powerful. Its capacity to evaluate large amounts of raw data in seconds or minutes compared to what a person could accomplish in weeks is a technology that will have an impact in the industry. That analysis then can be extrapolated to detect potential water supply failures before they happen, enhance water distribution networks, predict future flooding or elevate water quality monitoring.

 

How is your work contributing to water resilience for a sustainable future?

When I think about a sustainable future and water resilience, I envision a time when everyone will have access to clean water for drinking, bathing and recreation. It's only accomplished if we optimize our water use and manage, upgrade and preserve infrastructure. I think many of the projects I am working on contribute to these goals, whether it's an upgrade to an existing City of San Diego Water pipeline system or feasibility studies under the Safe Clean Water program, where we evaluated the ability to implement infiltration best management practices to help increase water supply and clean up stormwater in communities.

It's exciting to be a part of these types of projects because I think they make an impact to safeguard our natural resources and make the most of the resources that we have. Being part of the water group, I'm integral to contributing to a long-term sustainable future.

 

When I think about a sustainable future and water resilience, I envision a time when everyone will have access to clean water for drinking, bathing and recreation.

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